TEHRAN (FNA)- The United States is once again the biggest arms exporter, the biggest military spender, and the biggest threat in the world.

This came into effect once again after President Donald Trump signed the 2019 US military spending bill into law, authorizing the Defense Department to invest around $717 billion into military strategies that will target Russia and China.

Trump approved the massive budget on Monday during a signing ceremony at Fort Drum, a US Army base which is home to the Army’s 10th Mountain Division and has deployed the most troops to US wars abroad since the 9/11 attacks. The new act allows the Pentagon to spend $639.1 billion in base funding, while earmarking another $69 billion to fund wars overseas and some $8.9 billion for obligatory military expenditures.

The act identifies emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, space and counter-space capabilities, cyber attacks, foreign influence operations, and hypersonic weapons as threats. It also singles out Russia, North Korea, China and Iran as adversaries that need to be countered.

Just like his predecessors, Trump claims that these countries are the biggest threat to global peace and security. But is this really the case? Much to his chagrin, the country that destabilized the planet long before his presidency was and still is the United States and there are facts and figures to substantiate. There are also many reasons why it is the United States that needs to be encountered and not its adversaries.

An international poll finds that the US is viewed by peoples around the world to be the biggest threat to world peace. An end-of-the-year WIN/Gallup International survey found that people in 65 countries believe the United States is the greatest threat to world peace.

Last year a Pew Research Center similarly issued results of their polling of 30 nations in which respondents had been asked “Do you think that the United States’ power and influence is a major threat?” The “major threat” category was selected by 35% of respondents worldwide for “US power and influence.” More respondents among the 30 sampled countries also saw the US as “a major threat,” than saw either Russia or China or Iran that way.

Indeed, the use of armed force has always been an inseparable part of US hegemony. On the other hand, in global finance, the United States is not only less dominant, but vulnerable. That’s why Trump sees China as a threat to American hegemony. He has even waged a trade war against one of world’s biggest economic superpower. Turning toward a more belligerent international trade policy against allies is also what Trump is doing to the EU.

These policies are feeding into a perfect diplomatic storm. The large US military spending will damage world peace and stability. The Pentagon will have more to spend on foreign wars, and the Military-Industrial Complex will have more clients to sell its weapons.

It means what it means. Unlike what Trump would like to suggest, America’s military supremacy is not being used to rebuild global security. It is to rebuild America’s geostrategic and economic hegemony. It is not there to serve the interests of other communities across the world. It is to serve American interests. For decades, the American military establishment has been a source of support for arms manufacturers, and for alliances whose logic is to preserve the regional and global status quo through wars and occupations.

The US military presence still protects economic interests, notably in Saudi Arabia and other oil satrapies, and a bigger military budget may now allow the United States to control the oil fields of other regional states as well, but the extent and duration of that control, and whether it will increase the strategic leverage of the United States over the region, remain highly problematic and in doubt.

Taken together, with the biggest military budget in the world, the United States is destined to cobble together new coalitions to wage new wars of deceit in the Middle East and beyond. The interesting part of it is that Trump says the US would not pay for it. Arab allies will pay.

All this and more should fracture the legitimacy of the United States across the world, dealing a blow, in effect, to Trump’s lies and the ideology and culture of American imperialism. US wars and military presence have only widened the rift between the US and the international community, further inflamed the Muslim world, softened support for the bogus war on terrorism, and significantly weakened global peace and security.

The United States has always been ready to use its military in its futile, never-ending quest to challenge its adversaries and rule the world. The same policy in varying degrees is now being pursued by Trump. Experience tells us, they will also produce disasters for the United States.

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